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Kudzu Man the GMO evolution of humans
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"i told them not to plant those seeds. i told all the farmers around
here they would one day reap what they had sown. i
myself never ate the stuff. yeah! i have lived here all my life. you
people keep coming here and this thing is going to
spread." Dr. Pueraria Lobata sat on her front porch rocking to and
fro with an anxiety so great she was shaking and
sweating and a little green. She had not seen another person for
days and preferred it that way. the last few months had
been unnerving and it was unusual to see a face again. a face with
no mask. you could smell the wet dirt. just another hot, sultry,
southern summer night, but it was silent. not a creature around for
miles. the normal croaking and chirping of the night had been gone
for years. the investigator was a young man that looked like he was
one of the elites. one of those globalist ready to control the
situation. all the new cities were full of clones just like him.
they had separated themselves off from the rest of the so called
lowly unmodified commoners. he wore a high tech suit
full of the latest gadgetry.
"let me hear your story again, Dr. Lobata. my name is Justice
Walker, and i am with the UN globalforce. i report directly to the
authority in charge of this investigation."
Dr. Lobata was frustrated and still suffering from shock. "i am
going to tell you everything from the beginning and you
had better get me live in the cloud and all over the social networks.
i want this documented. i want all of you in those closed off mega
ecocities to see what is coming. you think you so pristine and free
from diseases, but a parasite is burrowing right up your asses. i give
you two years, maybe three, before this disease transforms your
white clean technomad cities. it is going to be a pandemic of epic
apocalyptic proportions. you have all eaten the fruit of the
forbidden tree. i say only the ones like me will survive."
"please, Dr. Lobata, we have all our scientist working on this. we
are trying to bring back the seed vault. to replant and
find alternative food sources soon. please tell me what happened
here."
"well" , the doctor took a deep wheezing breath and replied. "it
started near on 50 years ago i'd say. you know, you have
heard the stories. back in the early 2000's they started planting that
gmo corn and manipulating all the crops. it was bad
out west in the bread basket, but what they did here in the south,
here it changed everything. we mainly grew soybeans,
cotton and a few other crops, but i think it had something to do with
that kudzu. somehow it started to mutate. i have lived
in pleasant hills all my life. grew up running through kudzu. you
know the history. it was brought in from japan to stop
erosion. mississippi is covered up in kudzu. it took over the south.
farmers had to spray all kinds of herbicide to keep it
away from their crops. i think it was about ten years back i started
seeing the change. something had happened in the
fields. i think that kudzu was affected by those gmo crops. i think it
genetically changed the make up of kudzu and
somehow it has mingled with human dna. i started hearing tell of
women dreaming of a green plant monster raping them in their
sleep. a green plant like man strangling them almost to death.
these stories have been passed down now a generation,
maybe two. i don't know, these people also ate the genetically
modified food, so who knows how it happened. i got myself
off the food chain years ago. i only eat what i grow. save all my
own seeds. i stayed isolated and out of those fields.
basically i have followed the wildlife. they know. they have a sense.
like before tsunamis they head to higher ground or get
nervous before earthquakes. if you look around these parts you
can scarcely find an insect let alone birds or bees. i will
have to follow soon. but i warn you. this is coming to your
ecocities. i think it will even jump to those seasteading cities,
too. they only eat genetically modified foods. you think i am a
lunatic. but i have seen these creatures. i used to be a
scientists, a botanist. i worked for the university of mississippi. the
area hospitals started contacting us asking all kinds of
questions about kudzu and modified plants and organisms. they sent
us a lot of material. we started analyzing. i knew then
i had to remain isolated from society. this thing that did this, he was
one of those modified creatures. they are calling them
phytomen. i saw the old Faulk house after the murders. the little
one survived, but he took her with him. i think she is
his offspring. she had that look and had stopped eating food. that
night, the night of the murders, he had crept into the
mothers room and was penetrating her from behind. her husband
walked in and that creature did not stop his evil defiling
act, but turned and sent a vine like object from his head strangling
Mr. Faulk as he watched. the phytoman must have known
then that it was over, people would now know his truth; because
what he did to the mother and son was unspeakable. it was like
he did not care to stay hidden any longer. he took his pleasure with
both of them. you saw it. that scene was horrific! you, i
am sure, have seen all of the dna evidence. that phytoman is part
human part plant. part KUDZU! i believe. i think they are
multiplying and still mutating. strange thing is, i think it works
through male dna easier. it is having a hard time mutating in the
female human. that is why he had to come after that little faulk girl.
he had produced a female offspring. soon i think you will see more
mutations in your cities. i have tried to think like a plant. oh! how
crazy that sounds, i know. these human plants will have nothing on
their minds but propagation of the species. now they seem to need
chlorophyll only but i think eventually they will fully mutate with
the carnivorous human and become meat eating
phytohumans. this is one dna mutation away from changing the
evolution of this planet. i hope your scientists have a
planned course of action, Mr. Walker. "
"well, Dr. Lobata," said Justice Walker. "we would like you to
come with us and help. you have the background we need
to set up the program for eradicating this disease. i have orders to
take you directly to the UN WHO labs at our seastead.
it is the only pure organic city not contaminated with modified
organisms. we have been like you and maintained a
separate food source and we are totally disease free. before i take
you, you must undergo a body scan and let me analyze
your dna for contamination. we must leave here quickly though. "
Dr. Lobata looked down at the rich soil and said, " all these years i
have been keeping myself away from you futurist
elites, trying to stay clean and live of the earth and you think i am
just going to come with you and put my trust in you
hoping you are not contaminated, leaving the earth for a city on the
water. have you thought about air contamination? do
you know how plants pollinate? what is your clean source of water?
i have my own plans i am not going with you elitist.
"but, but, i have my orders to bring you by force if need be Dr.
Lobata. we need your expertise. we need to stop this now",
cried Justice Walker with a tinge of desperation and apprehensive
force.
"i think it too late already." said Dr. Pueraria Lobata .
as she did she started to turn a tinge of green and large kudzu like
vines grew from her skin. like the speed of a shooting
star she covered her visitor with choking vines. when she retreated
all that was left of Justice Walker was his suit and
shoes. Dr. Lobata had thoroughly consumed him like the devil
tongued amorphophallus titanum eating an insect.
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Comments
Hehe, this story needs a LOT of work, but from the moment we learn the good doctor's name to the moment she. . . Don't want to spoil anything here. . . Does what she does, it's a hoot. You need to work on the punctuation and grammar quite a bit, though. At first, I wondered if you might be running everything together for effect, but by the end I'd decided that you just don't know how to punctuate. Please learn! Read some stories you admire and note how the writers punctuate dialogue. I want this story to work! It's full of fun little science factoids, and I've ALWAYS thought there was something homicidal about kudzu. Zucchini too; maybe you could do that one next.
Hehe, this story needs a LOT of work, but from the moment we learn the good doctor's name to the moment she. . . Don't want to spoil anything here. . . Does what she does, it's a hoot. You need to work on the punctuation and grammar quite a bit, though. At first, I wondered if you might be running everything together for effect, but by the end I'd decided that you just don't know how to punctuate. Please learn! Read some stories you admire and note how the writers punctuate dialogue. I want this story to work! It's full of fun little science factoids, and I've ALWAYS thought there was something homicidal about kudzu. Zucchini too; maybe you could do that one next.
Oops, I seem to have posted this twice. Sorry!
I found this really difficult to read due to the lack of capitalization and punctuation as well as the type (bold and italicized). You seem to switch narration after the first few sentences and it's hard to tell whether it's intentional.
I think you probably have a good idea here but it was so hard to read I wasn't able to get anything out of the story. Take Jane's advice, work on mechanics, and try again.
thank you for your comments. i know i am no e. e. cummings, but i do hate caps. we should appreciate the editor, for i can not stand to interrupt the creativity for the task. i probably should not have submitted this little creative break, as it was a quick write. i have since corrected some errors. i think i might have been trying to channel a little faulkner with no success. it would be interesting to see the exchange between famous writers and their editors. it is hard to have a manuscript bowdlerized and makes one resistant to the modern grammarians.
This was hard to read because the font was small and there were numerous grammar errors. The premise is interesting. Maybe you could show and not tell a bit more. For example, give us some of the characters actions so we can infer about their personality rather than just stating it. I like the names of the characters, very interesting.
I have to agree with Brandy Batz + the others - this is hard to read because of formatting etc. Also agree with Brandy Batz that the biggest difficulty is that the whole plot is told by one guy in one paragraph. It's like the summary for a story. I do like the idea of GMO as horror story, as it hits home. Love the concept, but can't really judge what this is yet, as it's still too raw. Thanks for sharing.
kudzu man revision. please feel free to suggest edits. still slighting the cap. thank you!